Bollywood love songs can sometimes teach you a lot about selling. I found an excellent song from a 1970's Bollywood hit titled, “Aradhana” (which is a remake of a Hollywood film "To Each His Own" starring Olivia De Havilland) in which one can see what a potential sales cycle looks like by what takes place in this love song in this film.

I like this song because committing to a relationship and making a sale are very similar at an emotional level and both have a similar choreography. In both situation, it could be a quick sale, no sale or a drawn out sales process. This song is an example of a drawn out sales process (in a song).

Rajesh Khanna.

This song works so well in that, as in sales, love appears simple, yet it is very complicated when you analyze it. The song has been masterfully composed and acted where you can see the ups and downs of committing to a relationship (sale).

Let me provide a little bit of information on what is happening here before you play the song and read my analysis. (And let me know if you agree with it.)

The hero in this song is played by the legendary Bollywood actor, Rajesh Khanna, who is employing a “yes” technique to close the sale, that is if you get a heroine (or a prospect) to keep saying “yes,” she will say “yes” when you go for the close. In addition, he is employing another common technique known as “ABC,” which stands for "Always Be Closing."

If you have not seen the movie, the son, who is also played by Rajesh Khanna is an amateur compared to his father. The father would have used an open-ended question to close the sale, as he does early in the movie in a different song. Unlike the father, the son is asking questions that salespeople are taught never to ask questions that elicit a yes or no answer. As you can see in this song, the son (who did not get that training from his father; thus gets the typical answer from the girl he is wooing with, "just looking."

He has lot of work to do now.

Bollywood starlet Farida Jalal.

The heroine is played by actress Farida Jalal who is employing the “push-pull technique.” She will "pull" by agreeing with him, and then "push" by disagreeing. She does it so subtly that the hero is completely oblivious of it, or can’t do much about it. But one thing that is obvious is that she is definitely aware of his “yes” technique.

As you will see in the song that she is in complete control on whether the sale is going to made or not.

The hero’s first “yes” question is “Baagon mein bahar hai?” meaning “[Do you agree that] the gardens are in full bloom?”

She says, “yes, true.”

So far it is a good start for the hero.

He then asks a second “yes" question, “Kaliyon pe nikhaar hai?,” meaning “[Do you agree that] roses have thorns.”

She says, “yes, true." So far she is “pulling," drawing him in. He sees an opening and goes for the close.

He then asks, “to, tumko mujhase pyar hai?” meaning “[then I can conclude that] you must love me.”

She emphatically replies, “No, no, no, [ I don’t agree at all with that conclusion.]” She pushes back immediately; thus, asserts control of the sale. The hero is going to be persistent and will resort to the same two techniques again.

Then something interesting happens that the hero does not pick up. She is using his “yes” technique on him, and rather than let her close him, he immediately interjects and tries to make a quick close, which does not work since she is not ready to be sold.

Finally, the hero is resigned to make one last ditch effort before quitting. The heroine has taken complete control, but is now ready to “buy,” so she lets him finally go through his harried “yes” technique and an awkward close that finally results in a sale. Though she has agreed to buy, she immediately makes it very clear that he better not take her for granted.

Though this is a love song, one can easily see that when you are selling, you are going through a very similar choreography of trying to get a girl to commit to a relationship. Now you know why sales is so tough and grueling. Unless you are a sales "athlete," you can't play this game well and win. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jay Oza is the founder and business development consultant at 5ToolGroup, a company that specializes in helping startups and small companies bring innovation to market within 90 days through our unique 5Tool Methodology that integrates sales, marketing, partnerships, customer development and agile/lean methodology to enable frugal or ("Jugaad") innovation with a strong business focus. We believe that to thrive today, you have to constantly be looking for ways to do lot more with lot less. This has proven to be the only insurance for success today. You can reach me at jay@5toolgroup.com.